General Information
Broker Name:	Eightcap
Broker Type:	Forex & CFDs
Country:	Bahamas
Operating since year:	2009
Regulation:	ASIC, SCB
Address:	208 Church Street, Sandyport, Nassau, The Bahamas
Broker status:	Active
Customer Service
Phone:	+61385922375
Email:	customerservice@eightcap.com
Languages:	English
Availability:	N/A
Trading
The Trading platforms:	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5
Trading platform Time zone:	N/A
Demo account:	Yes
Mobile trading:	Yes
Web-based trading:	Yes
Bonuses:	No
Other trading instruments:	Yes
Account
Minimum deposit:	$100
Maximal leverage:	1:500
Spread:	From 0.0 pips
Scalping allowed:	Yes

CONTENT

General Information & First Impressions
Fund and Account Security
The Trading Accounts
Eightcap’s Trading Platform
Funding and Pricing
Customer Service at Eightcap
Conclusion

Broker Review: Eightcap

General Information & First Impressions

Eightcap is a brokerage that started in Australia and has since moved to the Bahamas. It offers a diverse forex and CFDs trading service and has been around since 2009. Our Eightcap review will tell you how the company holds up in the current brokerage climate.

From Eightcap’s website, you can immediately see that the broker likes to keep things clear. Even on the home page, you can find a lot of important information about the broker. That includes the account types and crucial info about the broker’s platforms.

Even better, there are buttons that take you to a more detailed page right around the condensed info on the home page. We adore that setup as it leads to a much more convenient browsing experience that eliminates frustration.

However, in its attempts to clear everything up, Eightcap may have gone a bit overboard. Before we delve into that, we do want to note that it still offers a better browsing experience than the vast majority of brokerages. Still, the sectioning is a bit off.

If you start exploring eightcap.com, you’ll likely notice what we’re talking about. It has too many categories and not all of them are named aptly. That creates a situation where some info seems misplaced or may appear to be missing until you search effortfully. A good example of that is the broker’s regulator info.

It’s under the About tab, which makes sense, but the page is called compare our offering. You’ll surely agree that it’s not the most elegant way to name your regulator page. It’s a minor hitch, but that will be a recurring theme for our Eightcap review.

Fund and Account Security

While Eightcap seems like a secure company overall, it’s not entirely free of causes for concern. Namely, if we look at the company’s history, it has a tendency to move around a lot. That usually means the broker is moving towards regulatory entities with more lenient stances.

Of course, that’s not entirely unfair. If traders are fine exchanging a bit of safety for more versatile conditions, that’s fine. However, to us, it seems like the broker is avoiding a bit of responsibility.

Otherwise, it can also mean the company is trying to avoid legal prosecution. That doesn’t need to be the case, but we shouldn’t overlook the possibility either.

Again, that doesn’t mean we’ll conclude our Eightcap review by calling the company a scam. As we said, it often has minor hitches, but it seems like a fine firm overall.

It has two regulators, ASIC and SCB, and has different conditions depending on the one in effect. From what we could figure out, ASIC is in charge of Australian customers, and SCB is for everyone else.

ASIC is a bit less lenient than its colleague, so it has certain limits as far as leverage goes. On top of that, it imposes limits on crypto trading, which can present a huge obstacle for some traders.

As we said earlier, Eightcap’s security doesn’t show any major warning signs. The moving around is somewhat concerning, but not egregious misconduct to any extent. The double regulation, as well as its history of positive user impressions more than makes up for that. Altogether, we’d recommend the usual degree of caution, but don’t think you’ll run into major problems.

The Trading Accounts

The account division at Eighcap aims more towards function than luxury. Before we start with the live account descriptions, though, we should mention there’s a demo option. From what we could tell, the demo option isn’t entirely automatic, but you can request it from the broker.

And as we all know, it’s a fantastic option to have. Not only does it let you explore the broker in detail, but you can trade without losing any actual money. That’s not the most meaningful if you are experienced already, but it’s invaluable if you’re not.

Moving on to the real accounts, we can see that they’re devided between the Standard and Raw options. The former has looser spreads with no trading fees, and the latter has tighter spreads with fixed commissions. Eightcap pulls off some sneaky marketing with the Raw account, promoting it as the 0.0 pip spread account. However, in the detailed info you can see that the spreads will range from 0.0 to 1.0 pips.

Even though it’s a bit underhanded, it’s nothing new in the brokerage world, so we’re willing to look past it. We’d say the target audiences are fairly clear for both accounts. Day traders should prefer the Standard option, while Raw fits buy-and-hold tactics better. Also, there is one niche group of high-volume day traders that may prefer Raw.

However, as we said earlier in our Eightcap review, the broker rarely goes without some issue. Here, it’s the fact that there are no luxury options. On top of that, although the account typing revolves around spreads, they don’t beat alternatives. There are brokers that offer options that have tighter spreads and lower (if any) fees than the Raw option. For reference, here are the account specifications at eightcap.com:

The Trading Accounts - eightcap review

Standard

Typical EUR / USD Spread: 0.5 – 1.8 pips
Commission: $0
Min. / Max. Trade Size: 0.01 lots / 100 lots
Margin Call Level : 80%
Stop Out Level: 50%
Account Base Currencies: AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, NZD, CAD, SGD
Scalping Allowed: Yes
EAs Allowed: Yes
Hedging Allowed: Yes (not available for ASIC clients)

Raw

Typical EUR / USD Spread: 0.0 – 1.0 pips
Commission: 3.5 AUD, USD, NZD, SGD, CAD, 2.25 GBP, 2.75 EUR, per standard lot traded
Min. / Max. Trade Size: 0.01 lots / 100 lots
Margin Call Level : 80%
Stop Out Level: 50%
Account Base Currencies: AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, NZD, CAD, SGD
Scalping Allowed: Yes
EAs Allowed: Yes
Hedging Allowed: Yes (not available for ASIC clients)

Eightcap’s Trading Platform

The trading platforms are the first category where we feel confident to say the broker excels. Namely, it lets users choose between the two leading online trading platforms. Of course, we’re talking about MetaTrader 4 and 5.

Both of the platforms come with an intuitive interface and smooth commands. Both have their advantages feature-wise, but MT4 seems to be the preferred option among traders.

The advantage of offering a well-known trading solution is that it cuts out a part of the learning curve. Usually, when you join a new brokerage, you’ll need to learn how to use its trading software. Granted, most software shares a good deal of similarities, but there are still specifics you need to learn. And if you’re a high-intensity trader, the different button placement may mess with your muscle memory.

So, as we already said in our Eightcap review, we really like the platform’s versatility. However, one thing that propels the broker is that it also has TradingViev integration. As such, those that use the popular analysis tool can make trades within it instead of needing to copy them into another platform.

Of course, the broker also offers web and mobile versions of all its trading solutions. Altogether, we believe the platform selection is where Eightcap is at its strongest.

Funding and Pricing

We covered a bit of the funding and pricing info when we were talking about accounts in our Eightcap review. However, here we’ll reiterate some relevant points.

Namely, there are options for accounts with and without fees. The former has tighter spreads while the latter has them relatively looser. However, both options perform somewhat poorly compared with other standard brokerages.

Luckily, the deposit and withdrawal structures somewhat make up for that. There aren’t any charges when depositing or withdrawing money on the broker’s end. That tilts the overall trading structure a bit towards more towards user-favoring, but not by much.

Sadly, while the funding options are free, quick, and versatile, the pricing really holds back the broker. Paired with its relative lack of assets, it really pushes it down compared to other brokerages out there.

Customer Service at Eightcap

Eightcap did an outstanding job when it comes to customer communication. For starters, it has all three outlets, consisting of phone lines, live chat, and email. However, it goes beyond that and creates subsidiaries to support customers in different regions. It has multiple different languages, both for the website and for its support operatives. That makes the communication comfortable even for those that might not be entirely confident in their English.

Phone: +61385922375

Email: customerservice@eightcap.com

Conclusion

Eightcap feels like it’s just inches away from realizing its potential. However, in its current state, the small things holding it back add up and establish it as a mid-tier broker.

The biggest issue it’s facing is pricing, and that doesn’t tend to change. Brokers are very meticulous about their prices and they rarely change, as that would reduce profit margins. But the broker may have fought through that if everything else was fine.

But unfortunately, there are security concerns, limited asset variety, problems with website navigation, and other issues. Although some of these are minuscule, they aren’t something you can ignore entirely. The accumulated pressure from them mixes with the poor pricing and overshadows the broker’s high points.

So while it’s unfortunate that we need to end our Eightcap review on a low note, there are simply better brokerages out there. We suggest doing some more research and picking a broker that better suits your needs.